Generally, the viewing angle on an LCD is something that is designed in and can't be tweaked once the thing is manufactured. However, most LCD displays have a contrast adjust pin. This might not be brought out to anything useful depending on your device (you didn't say what its in - Cell phone, calculator, etc) but if you can find the pin and adjust the voltage on it, you can adjust the contrast and this may help the viewing angle.
I've had to do this a few times, and it's not so bad if you don't mind surface-mount soldering on some of the newer stuff.
The contrast of the LCD is determined by the potential on the aforementioned pin, sometimes it's pulled up from ground, sometimes pulled down from V+. Try googling any markings on the module and see if you can find a spec sheet on the thing. If it's in a Japanese radio, you'll probably strike out, but it's still worth a try.
Even if you can't, you usually only need to follow any branches off the power lead (or return lead), one of them will lead to the contrast pin.
LCDs work like voltage-controlled venetian blinds, the contrast is totally dependent on your angle with respect to the display. The voltage on the contrast-adjust pin is a biasing voltage to set the base angle. "On" is always 90 degrees from "off", no matter how it's biased.
Sooooo, if you can find the resistor in question, you can shunt some resistance momentarily to determine if it alters the contrast. If one does and the others don't, you found your fixed-value contrast bias resistor.
All you need to do at that point is pull the resistor and replace it with a suitable PC-mount pot. It'll be a little JS, but what project is complete without the ever-so-important JS clip lead?
On the other hand, you may find the resistor is just plain bad, and repacement with the intended value may put your viewing angle back in front of the display again.
Hope this helps... good luck!
--Thom
Killer Album One Zappa's Greatest Compositions
